Image copyrightRick SteinImage caption
Rick Stein's friendship and working relationship with David Pritchard (L) began more than 30 years ago, when Stein was a guest on a Keith Floyd programme

Rick Stein has led a host of tributes being paid to television director and producer David Pritchard who has died from cancer.

The Cornish chef said his "incredible" friend and director for more than 30 years sadly died earlier on Sunday.

Before teaming up with Stein, Pritchard directed the flamboyant Keith Floyd, considered by some as one of the first "celebrity" chefs.

"We will all feel a great emptiness now he has gone," Stein tweeted.

Among his many credits, David Pritchard directed Floyd on Fish, Seafood Odyssey and Rick Stein's Road to Mexico.

'Refreshingly different'

Pritchard, who was in his early 70s, was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago.

TV chef James Martin described Pritchard as a "legend and a true master of his art, who made food shows proper".

Chef Phil Vickery said he had "changed food films forever", while chef Matt Tebbutt described him as having a "huge personality and lust for all the good things in life".

Wine writer and presenter Oz Clarke tweeted that he had "many fond and bibulous memories of David stretching right back to his riotous times with Keith Floyd".

Former BBC weather presenter Craig Rich, who worked with Pritchard in Plymouth for many years, said he brought out the best in presenters.

Image caption
Their food programmes took David Pritchard and Keith Floyd around the world, including Australia, France and the far East

"He was always a larger than life character - a bon viveur and a great motivator," he said.

"When you were doing a piece to camera, he would stand right behind the cameraman with a smile on his face... if that smile went you instantly knew you'd have to do it over again."

Cameraman Adie Francis said Pritchard was both "incredibly creative" and "refreshingly different".

In his 2009 book, "Shooting the Cook", which is dedicated to his mother as "the best cook in the world", the director said there had been "fleeting moments" over the years when he would have gladly swapped the camera for a revolver.

He once described his relationship with Floyd as a "love-hate" one, but despite a period of 15 years when the pair did not speak, they met up again in Thailand a few months before Floyd's death.